So we had a bit of tension in this chapter, didn’t we? The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh nearly started a war, even though their motives were right. Of course, all they had to do was let the rest of the tribes know what they were doing ahead of time, right? Have you ever done anything with right motives, but were misunderstood and someone took offense? This is a common happening, isn’t it?

I’m thinking that The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh might have been afraid of offending the other tribes if they had said in advance, “We don’t know if we trust you to tell your descendants about us and the fact that we are a part of you, so we want to build an altar to remind you and your descendants about us.” I can see how that kind of a conversation could go sideways.